


Doctors & Dungeons & Dragons

by housebyside



Category: Red vs. Blue
Genre: Alternate Universe - Hospital, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Background Relationships, D&D, F/F, RvB Big Bang
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-25
Updated: 2017-02-25
Packaged: 2018-09-26 21:03:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 11
Words: 18,247
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9922013
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/housebyside/pseuds/housebyside
Summary: Dr. Vanessa Kimball, neurosurgeon, is nervous about her new job as head of the neurology department at Chorus Hospital. The people she works with are interesting to say the least and she hasn't been the best at making friends. But what's a better way to make friends (and maybe more) than Dungeons and Dragons?





	1. Meet Cute

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! This is my fic for the Red vs Blue Big Bang! Amazing art is made by http://coffeeastronaut.tumblr.com/ It's great so check them out! Please enjoy!

“And this will be your office,” the Doctor showed her the room, it was a little dusty and looked barren. The shelves were empty and there were several pots where plants once lived but now only ghosts remained. Her name, however, was already on a wooden panel slotted next to the door right below the room number. In simple, stiff, white type: Vanessa Kimball, MD.

“Anyway,” the other Doctor kept walking. She barely got to peek in her office before he was on the move. She caught up with him and continued on the tour. “I’ll introduce you to the other neuroscientist we have on staff after she’s finished with her consultation, you’ve already met the other neurosurgeon when he hired you, and there’s me of course,” The man she was following around was a little shorter than her, he had clean cut black hair, and his eyes were a muddy green color. She was older than him, but he still lead her like he was deserving of this authority, no matter how minor being in charge of a tour was. His name was Dr. Leonard Church Jr., although the receptionist who took her up to his office told her to never say the junior part and avoid saying his first name while she was at it.

“Here she is,” Dr. Church tapped his foot as the other neuroscientist exited the conference room, Kimball looked on as Dr. Carolina Church noticed her impatient younger brother and approached them.

“Ah, you must be Dr. Kimball, nice to meet you,” Carolina shook her hand and smiled, but it was a militaristic smile that had no warmth, it was like it showed up only out of duty. She had much brighter green eyes than her brother’s, she was also a little taller than Kimball, and had her reddish-orange hair tied up in a very professional looking bun. Everything about her made Kimball want to take a step back.

“Yes, you must be Dr. Church,” Kimball hated being caught up in these niceties, she was never one for shaking hands and pretending to know one another. But this was a new hospital and she had to make a good impression.

She smiled back. “Call me Dr. Carolina please, it makes it easier for the staff to know which one of us you are speaking about,” she responded mechanically, as if she had said this a thousand times before.

“Of course,” Kimball said letting go of Carolina’s hand.

“Now if you'll excuse me,” Carolina dropped her smile and headed back through the halls like she was on a mission.

“There you go,” the other Church turned to her and cleared his throat, “Now if you'll excuse me, I have other matters to attend to, I will leave you to move into your office.” Without saying anything more or even allowing her to reply he turned and left. She could see the family resemblance.

She was left in the middle of Chorus Hospital’s bright white hall, except, not quite white. Something she noticed during her interview process, there was a line of deep blue paint that ran along the wall close to the floor and a line of red paint running near the ceiling. This was apparently a choice made to keep the hospital bright with a splash of color on the off-white walls.

She had just met the Church siblings. They were exactly as she expected. They were just the kind of people who could take on an outbreak and remain professional. Kimball could never do that. She bit the corner of her lower lip. She could never do that.

Vanessa Kimball worked hard to earn her doctorate. She worked hard through residency. All her life she worked and worked, constantly looking to the next step. Her father always joked that she couldn’t do things the easy way, she can’t just be the first person in her family to graduate from college she has to go and get a doctorate as well. She was excited to take charge in her newest job as the head surgeon of the neurology department. If only she had gotten this job at a different hospital.

Chorus was, well, who hadn’t heard of Chorus by now? At first it was a just your average semi-urban hospital, large, but not too large. Nothing to write articles about. This was until the outbreak last year. The team of neurologists and neurosurgeons and a few other individuals reportedly kept the disease at bay and only three of the possible hundreds of patients living in the ward fell victim to the disease. Other hospitals were not as lucky and looked to Chorus for what to do. They were talked about in neurology circles as heroes, the staff who saved the day. The staff Kimball was now supposed to lead. They were already dismissing her and she had just arrived. She tried to clear these thoughts from her head as she made the old pots new homes for small vining plants and started unpacking her boxes of books. She was a leader, she reminded herself as she dusted the shelves. Public speaking as that leader? Well, that was hurtle she would have to jump later.

After an hour of cleaning she headed in the direction of where she remembered Dr. Church showing her the break room was for a bottle of water. “I can’t believe this-” Kimball stopped a few feet from the open break room as the voice of Dr. Carolina carried out through the door.

“Don’t fucking start, you guys made up years ago for fuck’s sake,” that was unmistakably Dr. Church, who sounded like he had less of a stick up his ass than before, “And it’s not her fault she was called in.”

“It’s not her, it’s just Wash won’t have anything prepared for it,” Carolina ranted, “He already does so much for us, what with his crazy hours and the wedding.”

Kimball heard the voices coming closer as the siblings turned the corner, “She already rolled the character, he could always make her an NPC-” Church stopped when his eyes met Kimball’s, “Ah Dr. Kimball,” he cleared his throat and stood up much straighter.

“Are you talking about Dungeons and Dragons?” Kimball didn’t know where the courage came from to ask that and to basically admit she was listening in on them.

“Uh, well,” Dr. Church looked around, avoiding looking at Kimball.

“Yes,” Dr. Carolina admitted, looking right at Kimball without any attempt to hide anything about herself, “Do you play?”

“Yes, well, I used to, when I moved here I had to drop out of my old group,” this was not the conversation she was expecting to have on her first official day at the hospital.

“Would you like to join our group?” Carolina offered.

“What?” Church said it before Kimball could.

Carolina didn’t look at him, and although her expression didn’t change, something about it did for Kimball. Carolina did look serious about the offer, “We have a character created already, but the person who was going to play them has been sent out on another unexpected tour.”

Kimball was not sure what the best decision here was, “Yes. I would love to.” She heard herself say before she could really decide.

“We meet Thursday nights, I’ll stop by your office later with the details and see if it will work with your schedule. Come now Church we have an exam to do,” she nodded to Kimball and continued walking. Church looked incredibly confused, and watched his sister walking away as if she was a stranger. He looked quickly at Kimball, as if he had suddenly remembered she was here. He then looked away just as quickly and followed his sister to the exam room.

Kimball looked back at the siblings disappearing once again in the hallways of people and once again wondered what she had gotten herself into.


	2. Thursday

Kimball opened the door to the small old house, painted a similar blue to the walls of the hospital, and looked around at the commotion. It was a house full of people wandering around with drinks, someone sitting in a corner was laughing so hard it shook the door frame. Had she come to the wrong place?

“Hey!” A taller man stepped into the doorframe and smiled, “Welcome to game night Dr. Kimball, and to my kickass house. My name is Lavernius Tucker, but call me Tucker, all these assholes go by their last name, so can I.” He had his black hair shaved close to his head with a simple design of a few interlocking circles cut even closer on the sides. He had a radiant smile and felt genuinely welcoming. He continued talking at an easy pace, “I also made snacks so help yourself! We’re still waiting on our DM so make yourself at home.” And he flited off to the other people in the house.

Kimball had never felt more overwhelmed. It was so loud inside, and everyone and everything was just so colorful. She stepped in and a few of the other house guests gave her a look then continued talking and cursing. There were plenty of snacks as Tucker had promised. There was a full spread of what looked to be taco fixings and several different salsas.

“All homemade,” Tucker was back at her side, she was startled by his sudden reappearance.

“Oh that’s cool,” she finally got a chance to speak.

“So you’re a neurologist right?” He asked.

“Actually, I’m a neurosurgeon,” she answered.

“That is so cool, and I know it takes a lot of work. Church was a nightmare in college, like I thought my stuff was stressful,” he said.

“Do you work at the hospital too?” She asked.

“Yeah, EMT Tucker,” he smiled again, “The DM’s an EMT too, but I’m definitely the sexier of the two EMT’s so you can tell us apart. He’s late because he got caught up in an emergency.”

“Weird hours are the fucking worst,” she agreed, she tried some of the salsa, “this is amazing.”

“Yes!” Tucker did a mini victory dance, then looked back up at her, “You’re already the best person Church and Carolina ever brought home from the Hospital.”

“Does everyone here work there?” she asked looking around at the colorful group of people that seemed unconcerned with her and Tucker’s conversation.

“Yeah. And you can never escape them. Trust me I tried,” he rolled his eyes. The doorbell rang and Tucker’s somehow looked even more lively, “That’s the DM, have more salsa we’ll be starting soon. I think Carolina’s by the table where we play.” He raced over to the door and threw it open.

Kimball turned to see the dining room table where books and dice had been set up or, in some cases, tossed. There sat Carolina organizing her dice into categories. Kimball walked up to the table, her hands clutching her player’s manual, “Hello Dr. Carolina.”

Carolina looked up at her and gave her the barest of smiles, “We’re playing D&D, you can drop the formalities.”

“Oh good,” Kimball sighed, she attempted to mimic the small smile Carolina had, “Thank you for inviting me.”

“We’ll see if you’ll still thank me after this,” Carolina said looking back to her dice, “they-” she paused then looked back at Kimball, she seemed to smile fondly now, “we can be a bit much, it takes some getting used to.”

“I doubt it,” she said. After all, these were the doctors in shining armor she’d heard all about. These heroes saving the world.

“Alright then,” Carolina smiled like she knew something Kimball didn’t.

“Hey everyone the DM is in the house!” She and Carolina turned to see Tucker who was standing on a chair by the snack table, his hands cupped around his mouth. Next to him stood a tallish man with blond hair and streaks of grey. He looked tired and was still wearing his uniform and badge. He was attempting a patient smile at Tucker’s antics as he grabbed a plate full of salsa and chips.

“Does that mean we’re starting?” A larger man lying down on the couch yelled back.

“Come on Grif,” a smaller, ginger haired man started pulling one of this Grif’s arms halfway up off the couch, but it didn’t look like it was doing much of anything to budge him.

Slowly everyone in the house filtered into the dining room with plates of food. She saw Church enter in, he glanced at his sister then at Kimball then took a seat next to the head of the table where the DM was setting up. Tucker sat across from Church and pulled a chair out next to him and waved Kimball over. She sat between him and Carolina and took out her papers and dice from her bag.

The DM cleared his throat and everyone, more or less, quieted down, “Okay everyone, we have a guest so try not to be too shitty, I’m David Washington, or Wash the DM,” he talked directly to Kimball and began pointing at each of the players in the order they sat, “That’s Tucker he’s a human bard,” Tucker gave her a wink and finger guns, “Carolina is a half-elf fighter,” Carolina nodded to her, “the one in pink is Donut, he’s a Tiefling warlock,” A smaller man with blonde hair with bubblegum pink highlights also winked at her, “that’s Simmons, he’s a dragonborn sorcerer,” the thinner man looked proud at the mention of his character, “Grif is a human cleric,” the larger man poked Simmons in the ribs causing him to screech in disproportionate surprise, “That’s Caboose, he’s a dwarf barbarian,” a man who personified the exact opposite of the word “dwarf” waved at her excitedly, “and that’s Church,” a pause, “He’s dead.”

“Hey!” Church squawked, “I am a half-elf wizard!”

“Right now you’re dead,” Wash said shutting him up, “we use our real names as character names so Caboose doesn't get confused,” Wash explained then raised his voice to the group, “And this is Doctor Vanessa Kimball everyone, she’s got her character sheet, you’ll meet her in game later,” he addressed her again speaking in the tone she would liken to a flight attendant, “If they get too obnoxious you can always leave. In that eventuality, I will cheer you on.” She nodded, still afraid to speak up. “Okay with that settled, last time we met, you finally defeated the great blue dragon threatening the home of Church and Carolina’s family but Church died, again, in the process. You heard tale of a great healer in the far off land of Chorus,” Kimball saw a roll of eyes at the familiar “fantasy” name, “who can revive your friend. You found the land in great chaos as a civil war broke out. Now, you are on your way to the leader of the rebellion for help finding the foretold healer. We left off as you made your way to her headquarters escorted by her guards, what would you like to do?”

“I would like to try to see the status of their base,” Simmons asked.

“Make a perception check,” Wash said.

“19.”

“It looks in very poor condition, you pass many soldiers who are in various stages of injured, their weapons are hastily made, and many of their uniforms don’t match.”

“Great,” Grif grumbled, “we picked the losing side.”

“Hey! We’d never have to of come here if you had healed Church during the last battle,” Simmons tried to jab Grif like Grif had poked him before but Grif seemed unaffected.

“How was I supposed to know he was going to die?” Grif swatted Simmons’ hand away absent mindedly.

“Because he always dies dude,” Tucker said.

“I do not!” Church said crossing his arms and just a notch below screeching.

“Church they have a point you do die a lot, so,” Caboose leaned over and loudly whispered to Church.

“You were the one who sent the giant scorpion on my ass the first time Caboose! And this time I died saving all of your asses,” Church yelled.

“You were killed by the Imp underlings of the giant dragon we killed without you,” Tucker was on the verge of laughing.

“Wash,” Church turned angrily, “what do I have to roll to haunt these ungrateful fuckers?”

“That’s not really how it, well, you know what? It’s been a long day, go ahead and roll a D20,” Wash massaged his temples as he listened to the argument.

Church rolled, looked at his number, and laughed an ugly laugh, “Natural 20 bitch!”

Wash looked like a part of his soul died, “You all see a spectral image of your fallen ally appear before you, seemingly pushed through the veil between life and death, a feat not easily accomplished. Truly his passage was blessed by the gods, or the Raven Queen was also sick of your bullshit.”

“Boo motherfuckers!” Church continued to laugh, most of the table groaned.

“Yay! Church is back!” Caboose seemed to be the only one pleased.

“You are escorted by the guards, who now look uneasy at the sudden appearance of an _actual_ ghost, into the chamber of the leader of the rebellion. She’s an elven lady who stands around a table with some more heavily armored people than the soldiers you saw outside. She notices your approach.”

“Ah, you’ve finally arrived,” Kimball spoke steadily and seriously as she went into character.

“I bow, and motion for the others to do the same,” Carolina says.

Wash nodded, “Okay well-” _Carolina, taking the front of the group, bows. The men behind her all clunkily and ungracefully try to imitate her. Simmons is tripped by the party’s cleric Grif_ \- “You douche,” Simmons grumbled- _This is General Kimball of the Chorus Rebellion. Most of you remember her from the description given to you by the sage who told you to come here in the first place and the rest of you figure it out, hopefully._

“No need for that,” _Kimball waves her hand and approaches the group_ , “I have heard of your feats of bravery, and have immense respect for you, it only grows after the news of your defeat of the Blue Dragon of Sidewinder.”

“No big, we’re pretty great,” _Tucker shrugs his shoulders but tosses her a wink. Carolina elbows him in the chest,_ this also took place outside of the game, _Tucker coughs and continues,_ “Then you know why we are here.”

“I do,” _Kimball nods gravely._

“So you know where the guy is who can un-dead me right?” _The_ actual _ghost of Church floats over from the corner and surprises Kimball_.

“Uh,” _She stares at the ghost before her, but decides coming back from the dead as a specter is a small feat for an adventurer from such a group that legends are written about,_ “I do. I would be happy to direct you to them, but I wanted to ask in return you would help my cause.”

“Cause what?” _Caboose waves his axe around to get her attention._

“Help my army fight our oppressors,” _Kimball looks around at the group._

“Just a sec,” _Donut motions for the group to huddle up,_ “I’ve been in some pretty sticky situations, and this seems like one of them!”

“I’m also wary of joining this fight, they are obviously in dire straights,” _Carolina says, looking deep in thought._

“I say fuck ‘em,” _Grif says in a not so whisper._

“I don’t know, isn’t this the kind of thing we do?” T _ucker crosses his arms and glances back at Kimball who, with such a high perception roll, can hear literally every word you guys are saying._

“I know this isn’t your war to fight, and all you want to do is help your friend. But just you being here give my soldiers hope. They are young and inexperienced, yes, but all they need is guidance. I have heard tales of your heroism and I believe you can make the difference, and maybe in time this cause could become your cause,” _Kimball’s words visibly shock your group, and she rolled pretty high persuasion guys._

“But we’ve never lead anyone before!” _Simmons protests._

“You’ll be great, you just need to try,” _Kimball says with conviction._

“Alright,” _Carolina looks back to the group who all nod, though some reluctantly,_ “We will aid your fight.”

 _Kimball turns to her next in command,_ “Felix, alert the troops.” _He nods and runs off._

“I guess we’ll run some drills?” _Tucker says unsure._

“That’s a good a place as any to start,” Kimball said and looked around the table, she noticed for the first time since the game started that they were looking at her, she looked down at her notes and scribbled. She tried to avoid their eyes as the game went on.

Later that night, as the group began to pack up, she saw Tucker fill tupperware container after tupperware container with the taco leftovers and shoving them upon his unsuspecting friends. Anyone who didn’t want theirs passed it off to Grif and he stole some others from the people who did want them. “Fuck, Grif! We don’t have room in our fridge!” Simmons was trying to make his jabs to Grif’s ribs affective but Grif was not seemingly paying him any attention. She had to smile a bit at that scene. It distracted her so much that when she felt a tap on her shoulder, she spun around startled at Carolina’s face.

“Sorry,” Carolina said in a way that felt like she didn’t entirely mean it, “I just wanted to tell you that speech was great.”

“Oh really?” Kimball said gripping the player’s manual closer to her, it was a safety blanket at this point.

“You have a good voice,” Carolina said still not in a completely friendly tone, but it sounded like she was trying to be upbeat, Kimball gave her a B- for effort, “for speeches,” She tacked on at the end.

“Thank you,” Kimball said, “I’ll see you tomorrow then?” 

"Ah yes,” Carolina scrunched up her nose, not in anger as far as Kimball could tell, “I will see you tomorrow.” Carolina nodded to her and awkwardly shuffled away with nowhere else for her or the conversation to go. Kimball watched her gather up her younger brother and head for their car.

“Here you go!” She tore her eyes away from watching Carolina leave by Tucker, who pushed a clear container filled with spicy spells that weren’t fully contained by the plastic into her already full hands, “That was great Doctor, you have to come back next week.”

“Yes, it was lit,” Wash cut in also handing her another clear container of food.

“Please don’t ever speak to me ever again,” Tucker put his head in his hands in shame.

“What? Did I do it wrong?” Wash looked away from Kimball and headed after Tucker. “You’re like 29 how do you make it sound like you’re fifty!” Tucker was beginning to break out in giggles as he moved away.

“Bye Tucker, bye Wash, thank you,” Kimball said as she headed out the door.

“It’s been real Kimball!” Tucker shouted to her, “It was lit!” even though she was out the door and in his driveway she could feel Tucker dying of laughter inside. She pulled herself into her car and tossed the leftovers onto the passenger seat. She began to buckle and caught herself looking back at the food. She allowed herself a small smile.


	3. D and D

She went into work that Friday after the game with a sour feeling in her stomach. She knew how things like this normally worked. They would be her friend for the fun times at home away from the public, but at work it was like they didn’t even know her name. She’d been to this rodeo before. She trudged through the hallways, past the receptionist’s desk. There, a man was leaning over and talking to the receptionist she had met earlier.

He turned to see her pass and audibly gasped. “Dr. Kimball!” Donut spun around and grabbed her hands shaking them vigorously, “How are you?” He wore light pink scrubs that didn’t quite match his highlights and a white lab coat over them. His nametag read: Dr. Donut. She looked up from the nametag in confusion, she didn’t think that was his actual last name, “I was just telling Doc, over here about how wonderful of a player you are!”

She looked over at the receptionist, Frank, or Doc she supposed? He wasn’t a doctor? “Oh, thank you Donut,” she said and looked at his nametag again, “You’re a gynecologist?”

“Yep! I’m an OBGYN, and I have a baby coming sometime this night if he’s on time!” He said in cheerful manner dropping her hands to point excitedly at his title.

“Good luck with the baby Donut,” she said and excused herself to find the elevator.

As the doors slid open Grif and Simmons poured out of it. “I told you not to mess with the curtain!” what Simmons was complaining about she couldn’t tell, Grif was loving it though, she could tell that much at least.

“Hey Dr. Kim,” Grif called to her as they passed.

“Yeah, hi Doctor,” Simmons said waving his hand absentmindedly, “Don’t think you’re getting out of this!” She entered the elevator and watched them continue to squabble as the doors closed. She took note of their name tags as well when they passed. Simmons was a nurse, Grif was an anesthesiologist. She was not sure how all these people found each other and became friends. It was a large hospital and all of their areas had very little crossover so far. She thought back to her residency, she never actually met an EMT long enough to exchange names. How they all wound up playing Dungeons and Dragons together was something she couldn’t fathom either. Maybe they were all college friends? She stepped into her office and started to go over the patient info of the people she would be meeting with to discuss options and surgeries. She quickly fell into her work and hours passed as clients came in and out and in between she made notes and poured over files.

Towards the end of her break, where she sat in her office with the heated leftovers from the night before, there was a loud knock at the door. “Come in!” She said and began to straighten up, “Oh Doctor-!”

“Ma’am I told you, you could call me Sarge!” The older man had burst into the room with a stack of books, “Here are the last of ‘em from my office!”

“Thanks Sarge,” she said standing to take them. Sarge was an old army doctor who was retiring from the position of lead neurosurgeon. She was taking his job. He had interviewed her and hired her, it was quite the interesting process, to say the least, “It’s almost time for your trip isn’t it?

“Yep! Me and the Missus are heading out to Huh-why-ee in the morning, It sounds a little boring to me but Em will love it,” he said nodding wisely. He stood like a soldier, even now years later. He crossed his arms and looked at her with a charged smile, “I heard you played that D and D with the Churches.”

“I did,” she nodded her head. Did they tell everyone at the hospital?

“Y’know I used to DM for the bunch, back when they first started playing,” he said looking immensely proud of himself, “So much glorious fighting!”

“You did?” She almost dropped the books in surprise.

“I used to be the only one with any experience playing, but now I’m retiring and they met Wash so I know I can leave them in good hands, and I think they didn’t want me trying to get Grif killed every session,” he shook his head sadly, “My only regret is I never found a way. Half the time Church fell into the traps.” He sighed.

She gave him a funny look, but it softened, “Have fun on your vacation Doc Sarge.”

“I will and Kimball,” he looked her in the eye, “keep going to those dang D and D games, you hear?”

She looked him back in the eye, fearlessly, albeit still a little confused, “I will.”

“Good,” Sarge turned and headed for the door, “Remember the meeting in room C4 in an hour!” The door slammed behind him.

These people were strange. That was becoming increasingly obvious. She looked over some files as she made her way to Sarge’s meeting, it would be mostly business, but a little bit of a goodbye party too. She nearly crashed into the tallest man she’d ever met. She backed up and tried to apologize, “Oh! I’m sorry I should be-Caboose?”

She’d actually already met this tallest man, Caboose, or Michael Caboose as his nametag read. It didn’t list a ph.D or a position, just his name, “Hello!” he held out the “o” and waved excitedly, “Doctor Kimball! How good it is to see you!” He smiled wide then turned suddenly, “This is Doctor Kimball everyone!” She tilted her head and saw a small group of children who were all listening to him intently, she waved a little at them. A few waved shyly back. “She’s a wizard.” He said definitively.

“Woah,” a few said in unison, the others looked around, eyes as wide as Caboose’s.

She was surprised by a blush crawling over her nose, “Actually, I’m a sorcerer.”

“Even better!” He cried then turned back to Kimball, his hands on his hips, looking very important, “Now, we have to go back because it’s almost juicebox time!” The kids all nodded seriously along with him, juice box time was a seriously big deal, “Say goodbye Kimball!”

“Say goodbye Kimball!” They all said not quite in unison.

“See you later,” she called back as Caboose lead them down the hall. So he was a babysitter. The list of different jobs these people held grew as the day went on.

She moved her way into the meeting room where the few members of the neurology department milled around. She had met everyone already. It was a good team. She looked around quickly and saw the Church siblings sitting next to each other in the first row, in the seats closest to the door. Carolina sat up rigidly straight. Her brother looked like he would rather sit in the back. Carolina noticed her before Church, her normally sullen expression brightened somewhat and she pushed some of her red hair back out of her eyes. She waved Kimball over, and Kimball panicked briefly. Her brother had noticed her now and was frowning so hard he put all other frowns to shame. Here was the hostility she was expecting. Carolina tilted her head slightly, in confusion perhaps, and paused waving briefly.

Kimball hurriedly sat down next to her, “Oh sorry, caught up in my thoughts.”

“No need to apologize,” Carolina said and looked back at her brother who was decidedly looking away. They didn’t exchange any more words until the meeting officially began.

She was introduced to everyone again by Sarge. She stood up and shakily began to explain objectives and medical news. She saw Carolina lean forward and watch her trip over her words. She wished she would stop staring. “And there have been a few cases of Sestus Magnus, at our sister hospital Sidewinder,” much like the name of a dragon, she thought, “Or as it’s been coined by the media the “Sigma” bacteria.” Carolina visibly hardened, her expression lost as she stared at the ground. Her brother also looked startled and was fiddling with the upholstery of his armrest. She was taken aback by their looks and almost lost her train of thought, “We have to be diligent to make sure it isn’t spreading here, all the departments have been notified of the symptoms and many have experience in this bacteria from your outbreak last year so-” she watched Carolina stand in the corner of her eye and leave the room, “so, so, know what to look for and follow procedures, we shouldn’t have a problem.”

“Thank you kindly, Doctor Kimball,” Sarge stood up, as Kimball took the seat next to Carolina’s empty one. She looked to Church for an explanation but he continued to stare at his armrest. “And I don’t like no teary goodbyes,” Sarge was in the middle of his goodbye monologue but Kimball kept looking at the door, only hearing bits and pieces, “But to hell with it!” He said definitely not tearing up in the slightest, “Let’s have some cake!” The department stood up cheering, and everyone grabbed a quick bite of the cake decorated in red icing, referencing a story Sarge promised he’d tell her one day. The department showered him with goodbyes.

At some point during the mini celebration, when Kimball must have taken her eyes off the door, Carolina slipped in, face paler than before. She didn’t grab a slice of cake. She shook Sarge’s hand, and then she and her brother were gone. Kimball watched this all, and turned away from the door at last and ate a bite of cake in a sadder way than anyone deserved to eat cake, and let them leave.


	4. Look at This Photograph

“Thursday man!” Tucker cracked open a beer and handed it to Kimball, “Nothing like Thursday D&D drinking.”

“Almost as good as day drinking,” she joked and took a swig. It had been exactly three weeks and she felt a little like she belonged. She knew it was a mistake to feel that way so quickly. But everywhere she turned in the hospital she ran into one of them and they always acted like they liked her. She didn’t always know how to handle it. Church was a very obvious exception to this. Tucker by far was the easiest to get along with, he was a friendly guy. Something about him meshed well with her.

“You better be taking at least four servings home this week. I made a fuck ton of chili. Too much for even Grif to eat,” Tucker crossed his arms.

“We’ll see,” Grif said as grabbed a bowl and started filling it with the red sauce overflowing with meat and peppers.

“Why do you make so much food?” Kimball asked getting her own bowl.

He shrugged and stirred one of the pots absentmindedly, “Because the Love Doctor always has something cooking, bowchickabowwow,” he said.

She laughed, “Be serious.”

He looked up at her, “Eh, well, cooking helps me when I’m stressed.”

“Oh,” she never saw cooking as particularly soothing.

“Yep, and well I’m an EMT. Sometimes it’s a three pots of chili night. So eat up everyone,” he raised his voice for everyone in his small home to get the message.

“Hey,” Wash entered the room with his books and dice, he took one look at the pots, “I’ll get the tupperware ready for later.”

“The troops are coming along,” _Kimball says as she walks through camp with the bard Tucker._

“Well I’m a big inspiration,” _he smiles but_ , “They still need a lot of work, they lost three horses yesterday.”

“That’s better than the twelve of last week,” _she sighs_ , “This has been hard. And it will continue to be hard.”

Tucker started to giggle uncontrollably, mostly out of character. “Grow up,” Wash rolled his eyes.

“My spy, Felix, has told me about the advanced magic the other side has been learning. He steals what information he can but I don’t know if it will be enough,” _Kimball watches Carolina in the distance lecture Grif and Simmons about not using their troops to steal food or for spell practice respectively_ , “But we must be strong for these soldiers. They are still very young. They look up to you.”

“It’s a lot of pressure.” Tucker looked concerned.

“Dad! Dad! Dad!” a small voice echoed as very quick small footsteps creaked through the old house.

“Junior?” Tucker looked down at a kid who had his dad’s eyes and had his hair in tiny braids with turquoise beads, “It is way past your bedtime.”

“But I want to see you fight dragons!” he said putting his arms up. Tucker picked him up in his arms and sat him on his lap, “Only for a little bit then right back to bed by 10:00, okay Junior?”

“Weak,” Grif cupped his hands around his mouth and bellowed.

“Make a perception check Kimball and Tucker,” Wash said reaching down to give Junior a special dice that matched the beads in his hair.

“Go ahead and roll for me bud,” Tucker leaned down to speak with Junior. Junior shook his hands, that gently held the dice, the dice was larger than average, apparently custom made for Junior.

“I’m sure you’ll be fine,” Kimball said mostly in character, thinking of an old hand fan and third edition, her small hands rolling a dice, and rolled perception.

On her way out, carrying three servings of Chili, they had compromised, she waved goodbye to Carolina, who had been colder to her since Sarge’s goodbye party. She had hardly talked to her at the table and in game her character did most of her talking to the whole group. She tried to not let her happy expression fall too much. Tucker swooped in with a halfway concerned look, the other half was his usual jovial, “Do you eat lunch in your office?” He asked with no prompting.

“Uh, yes?” She said, “Is this a ploy to send me more chili at work?”

“No,” he laughed, “Wash and I have lunch together all the time, he offered and I agreed, well, do you want to have lunch with us?”

“Well, both of your schedules, and my schedule-” she began.

“Yeah, yeah, I think Wednesday we have lunch at the same time, and depending on crazy shit out of our control I think we can meet up,” he said counting imaginary crazy situations on his fingers.

“Next Wednesday I think we can do it,” she said, and realized an unsaid _alone_ followed his initial question.

Almost a week of medical exams and one very successful surgery went by. Carolina seemed to warm back up to her, but only slightly. Church refused to be anything other than polite enough to do work with her. Kimball went home every night except that Thursday, and thought. She was often wore out from hospital work, but she spent a lot of time just thinking. She realized, one of these nights, this was an exceptionally lonely activity. What was she thinking and planning for? She wasn’t a general. Well. Yes she was. Only, her troops were just a story. She longed for Thursdays, days where she had people to talk to, an army to lead. Wednesday lunch, however, was another break in the routine that she desperately needed.

“Hey Kimball!” Tucker stood up from one of the dinky metal chairs of the Hospital cafeteria and waved her over. Wash was sat next to him and also, calmly, waved a little as he took a sip of the generic coffee that usually sat in the corner of the cafeteria getting cold and nasty. She smiled and waved back and made her way to the table that sat at the edge of the cafeteria near the plastic plants that sat next to the door. She put her tray down and sat as Tucker did.

“Hello Doctor Kimball,” Wash said, and took another sip of the coffee.

Tucker must have noticed her staring at Wash’s cup, “He’s the only person who can drink that shitty stuff, I swear he’s a machine.”

“You’d like to think that,” Wash smiled slyly.

“Hello Tucker, Wash,” she nodded to the two of them.

“How are you?” Wash asked looking at her, genuinely curious, he was a very honest looking guy.

“I finally got all of my paperwork for my transfer here done, and I’ve gotten a lot of research done as well,” She looked up and began listing her day’s work.

“No, no!” Tucker said and she immediately looked at him confused, “Not work stuff, please, this is the end of a ten hour shift for me and Wash, I never want to talk about medical business ever again.”

“Oh well,” she began to stammer, “I spend a lot of time at work,” she said as an excuse, she didn’t have anything else to talk about, she glanced at Wash who seemed to understand.

“How are you liking the game?” Wash asked with a knowing smile. “I’ve been, I really enjoy it,” she smiled and let a little breathy giggle escape, “I’ve always enjoyed D&D, and your campaign is really interesting. I’ve never played such an interesting role.”

“Thank you,” Wash said, “I love finding people to play characters who are usually NPC’s in other games, adds more variety, a little less work on my part.”

“Yeah he spends so much time planning,” Tucker shoved Wash’s shoulder playfully, “He should sleep more.”

“I sleep a perfectly normal amount,” Wash shoved him back. “Tell that to my kid, he thinks if Dad Wash can be up past midnight so can he,” Tucker shook his head.

“How is Junior by the way, I didn’t know you had a kid until last Thursday, he seems adorable,” she asked.

Tucker lit up, “Oh he’s at his mom’s tonight, big test tomorrow on colors, he’s a genius though so he’ll be fine. Here look at this,” Tucker pulled out his wallet fast as lightning, “Look at him and his basketball team,” he shoved a photo in front of her meal, a bunch of blurred six-year-olds running around a court with basketballs scattered across the gym, Junior stood front in center smiling big, eyes squeezed shut, he was adorable.

“He is adorable,” she echoed her thoughts.

“Here’s another of him in his little tux to be flower-ring boy for the wedding,” he flipped to another of the little guy in a similarly little tux.

“Wedding?” she asked, while admiring the cuteness.

Tucker sat back down, “Oh shit, you wouldn’t know would you?”

She looked back between them, “Who’s getting married?”

“Ah! This is exciting, we get to announce it again,” Tucker reached over and grabbed Wash’s left hand, “We are!”

She looked and saw two matching simple gold wedding bands, with a little turquoise gemstone on Tucker’s and a yellow stone for Wash, “Oh! Congratulations!”

“I can’t believe I let it go on so long without you knowing,” Tucker said giving Wash his hand back.

“It’s only been three weeks?” she asked.

“He tells everyone,” Wash said nodding seriously, “but don’t worry being engaged to the DM doesn’t mean I give him any special treatment.”

Tucker rolled his eyes, “You’re telling me, god Wash you are the worst. You sure are hard on me. Bowchickabowwow.”

“I’m ending the engagement.” Wash deadpanned.

“Babe,” Tucker whined.

“So engaged before or after D&D game started last year,” she asked.

“We got engaged during that scary outbreak, which is around the same time the D&D game started, although Wash was always super busy on Thursdays and couldn’t make it,” Tucker explained.

“The D&D game started during the outbreak?” she asked.

“Yeah,” Tucker said, “gave me something to cook for.”

After lunch she waved Wash and Tucker goodbye. Tucker seemed to be on a roll and continued to show pictures of Junior to Wash, who listened with the look of someone who had seen them all before. She went back to her office and nearly bumped into Carolina on the way there.

“Oh Hello Dr. Carolina,” she said, hoping her good mood would last through this conversation.

“Hello Dr. Kimball,” she said tersely.

“Did you just get back from lunch too?” she asked.

“Yes,” she said, and Kimball, why she couldn’t quite put her finger on, suddenly realized that Carolina had definitely not eaten yet today.

The lunch with real people to talk to was so wonderful, she didn’t want to go back to sitting in her office alone. And she had to make sure Carolina was eating, “Do you want to get lunch together tomorrow?” She blurted out, more hastily then she wanted.

Carolina looked taken back, behind her eyes she seemed to be going over possibilities and strategies on how to tackle this question, “That would be fine.” She settled on.

“Great, I’ll see you then,” Kimball said, suddenly filled with a confidence she definitely didn’t have that morning.

“Yes, I will see you then too,” as Carolina headed back to her office, Kimball thought she saw her stand up a little straighter.


	5. Lunch Date

Kimball watched the woman across from her pick at a salad. They hadn’t spoken much yet, but there was proof Carolina was eating, at least a little.

“How are you?” Kimball asked, hoping to move the conversation along a little.

“An exam went better than expected, there haven’t been any signs of Sigma in any department,” she said in what could only be described as a practiced flippant yet monotone voice.

“No, how are you doing?” Kimball asked smiling just a little, “No work stuff.”

“Oh,” Carolina looked strangely at Kimball, “I’m alright, a little tired maybe.”

“Yeah tired is right,” Kimball said, “We really should get more sleep.”

“I’ve tried everything Kimball, trust me, there is no such thing as “more sleep”,” she said but she also took another bite of salad. Kimball took that as progress. She really read too much into things, “Do you have any battle plans?”

“What? Oh, wait yeah,” Kimball took a moment to remind herself why she would have battle plans in the first place, “Yeah, I drew up a little formation for my troops in the next battle, I’ve been focusing more on the defensive side however.”

“Because of the magic users?” Carolina asked, they both looked down on the table at an invisible battle of tiny colorful figurines waging a tiny war.

“This kind of magic, I’ve never seen it before, I mean apparently I haven’t, and they always seem to know our movements before we actually move,” Kimball frowned seriously.

“Maybe we have a spy on our hands?” Carolina asked.

“That’s, that could be true. If it is one of you guys I’ll be so pissed,” Kimball said only half-seriously.

“Eh, I wouldn’t put it past Wash scheming with one of them. Anyway, being paranoid is good for a leader, just watch out next session for anyone being sneaky,” she said.

“Thanks for the advice,” she said genuinely.

“Well, you would have figured it out, you’re a great leader,” Carolina said.

“Oh,” Kimball scratched the back of her neck, “You too.”

“If you want some real life advice, you should use your leader voice, the one from the game, when you address everyone at meetings,” she said, then somewhat faltered, “Your voice is good.”

“Thank you,” she tried to keep the heat from rushing to her face, “I just have trouble, uh, with public speaking.”

Carolina seemed to study her. Her expression was usually sharp but it looked gentler now. She leaned closer, “Sorcerer, leader of the rebellion, Vanessa Kimball can inspire her troops with a word, a speech drives them to action,” Carolina said, her voice low, “If she can do that so can Neurosurgeon Vanessa Kimball.” She sat back up straight and took another bite of her salad. Vanessa was sure only pure mental concentration was keeping the blush away now. “Just imagine a meeting like it’s a Thursday, think of the department as your troops,” Carolina continued and pointed at her with her fork, “Sarge hired you for a reason.”

“Imagine them as my troops,” she echoed, she never thought about it like that before, “I’ll try it.”

“Good,” Carolina said and looked pleased. Kimball looked at Carolina and giggled a little as the blush broke through her defenses. Perhaps she wasn’t as good a military leader as she thought.

“So Carolina, you see Kimball standing on the balcony looking over the edge down at the rest of your team trying to teach her troops, you are stealthed, what do you do?” Wash narrated, and shuffled through his notes.

“They are coming along nicely,” _Carolina approaches and stands next to her on the balcony and also looks down._

 _Kimball looks at Carolina surprised because she hadn’t noticed her approach since Carolina’s stealth check was so good_ , “Ah, Carolina, what brings you up here?”

“I had some thoughts, and I saw you up here alone,” _Carolina says._

 _Kimball shakes her head slowly,_ “Tucker told me to take a break, but, I couldn’t leave them,” _she motions to her troops, Caboose the dwarf is lifting four of them above his head._

“I know what you mean, Church and I always think this time will be the last adventure with the others but we keep coming back,” _She turns to Kimball with a wistful smile,_ “This is a good spot.”

“Yes,” _Kimball points to the horizon,_ “I give speeches here. The view of the land reminds me what I’m fighting for.”

“You really care about this country huh?” _She asks thinking she knows the answer._

“Not the country, the people, I owe it to them,” _Kimball gets more serious,_ “I’m not the first leader of this resistance. I hope I am the last for better or for worse.”

 _There is a silence between the two of you, Carolina looks at Kimball for a moment and speaks,_ “You’re right, the view is great.”

Wash moved on to ask about what Donut and Caboose were doing with the troops, while Kimball couldn’t quite focus. She could see Tucker out of the corner of her eye looking at her and trying to hide a look of surprise that passed quickly into a look of “I’m not looking”. Everyone else at the table was paying attention to Caboose and Donut’s antics as far as Kimball could tell. Except, wait, Grif. He gave her a look like he had figured something out. His face shifted only slightly when he realized she was looking at him. He nodded his head and leaned even farther back in his chair than he was before. Simmons, without even looking, slowly moved his hand to make sure the chair didn’t tip over.

After the game she and Carolina left together, Church trailing behind as they chatted. “Yeah I always get coffee before work. Hey, I can pick you up some on those days,” Kimball said, “Since the hospital coffee is shit.”

“That would be perfect,” Carolina dug around in her purse for a pen, “I’ll give you my number so you can let me know and I can give you my order.”

As she scribbled out her number on a scrap from her D&D notes, Church could be heard audibly groaning. “Can we get a move on Carolina? You’re my ride remember?” He said not-so-friendly.

She looked exhausted and handed her number to Kimball, “We’ll see you tomorrow.” Kimball waved to them as they headed for their car.

It took her the whole car trip to her apartment, walking up the steps, greeting no one at the doorway, and hanging up her coat to realize she had been given Carolina’s number. Carolina had given her her phone number. She paused halfway to her bedroom and stood in the realization. Nerve generated heat filled her chest and poured throughout her body. She hadn’t gotten a girl’s number in a very long time. And they had been flirting, hadn’t they? It was mostly in game but she was flirting at lunch too. What if she was reading too much into it? Even if she was reading just the right amount into it, wasn’t she technically Carolina’s boss? Would that be ethical? Kimball didn’t know when she had started pacing, but she suddenly realized she was moving up and down her hallway faster and faster as more and more questions and nervous energy flowed through her. She pulled the paper with the phone number on it out of her pocket and stared at it and groaned. Before, she was confident in casually texting Carolina about coffee and now she wasn’t sure if she could even look at the number any longer. She shoved it back into her pocket. What if she was putting too much thought into this? Tucker had given her a look, but that didn’t really mean anything concrete; he was the king of looks.

Grif had given her a look too. She hadn’t spoken with him very much so far. She remembered one conversation they had at work. They were prepping for surgery, he was the anesthesiologist, she was the head surgeon. She had seen him make fun of Simmons, the situation they were in, and Simmons or complained about having to fight because then he’d have to “pay attention” and “do stuff” when they played the game. But in surgery, he had a sort of focus she could see in his eyes. The other surgeons had commented about it as well. (She had said, “The other surgeons said you are the best anesthesiologist at Chorus.” He had shrugged, “No one knows sleeping better than me.”) He seemed to have seen something about Carolina and her that was interesting. Maybe. And maybe that meant she wasn’t being unreasonable.

At some point in her thought process, she had paced herself into her bedroom. She took that chance to lay down but her thoughts kept up the pacing for her feet. What if’s continued to swing back and forth in her mind. She thought back to the lunch, “Pretend they are your troops,” she echoed again. She closed her eyes and asked another question, “Why not?”


	6. Lover's Spat

A month passed quicker than any month at her old job. Her days, and sometimes nights, were filled with prep and surgeries. With each new Thursday she fought off the tyrannical Republic's forces. She looked out for a traitor but was still coming up short. In game she had notified the group of her concerns, and Carolina volunteered to find the traitor. In game and out of game, as far as Kimball could tell, the flirting continued. They had started to get lunch more than from time to time. She even joined Kimball when she had lunch with Tucker and Wash. One lunch she revealed she was Wash’s Best Man for the upcoming wedding.

(“Our college was hell,” Carolina said.

“Yeah, that’s putting it lightly,” Wash nodded solemnly.

“Church is my Best Man because we both chilled at a boring college for people who don’t enjoy dying” Tucker cut in.)

And they texted. It was mostly morning texts about coffee but sometimes it went further.

(“I picked up the book by Dr. Lopez you recommended. It is very interesting,” a text from Carolina read. It arrived while Kimball prepared dinner one night.

She took a deep breath before responding, “I’m glad you like it!!!!” and then immediately wondered if she had used too many exclamation points.

Her phone buzzed again, “We should discuss it more tomorrow at lunch!!” She almost burned her pasta.)

Yes, head neurosurgeon Vanessa Kimball had a definite crush on neurologist Carolina Church. She didn’t know who to talk to about it. She thought about asking Tucker and Wash. Wash had known Carolina the longest, besides her brother but he wouldn’t talk to her, and Tucker claimed to have great relationship advice. Their wedding, however, was getting closer. While some days they hid it better than others, they were nervous, excited, stressed, and impatient all at the same time. She didn’t want to give them more things to stress about.

She handled her feelings in the only outlet available to her, D&D. Sorcerer Vanessa Kimball, leader of the rebellion, had a more open crush on the great fighter Carolina, dragon slayer. They worked together quite closely trying to find the traitor. In those moments Kimball let her deeper feelings show.

(“I place my hand on her shoulder and say, ‘Thank you Carolina, my respect for you has only grown.’” She said in character, but Carolina let her put her hand on her shoulder in real life. It was just for roleplay reasons. Really.

“I accept your respect, but know mine for you has grown as well,” Carolina took her hand off her shoulder and held it in hers, more roleplay, “Now, their movements have countered ours when we were more strategically organized, perhaps being more unpredictable and less formally planned may be the right option here.”

“An interesting plan,” They held hands for a couple more seconds before Carolina realized and carefully withdrew her hand. Just so caught up in the roleplay.)

Carolina, was just so, so much better. She helped stop a deadly virus. She must be the best neuroscientist Kimball would ever meet. There was no way she had a crush on Kimball like Kimball was crushing on her. Carolina was too professional for that. She was deep in these thoughts as she left her office for a coffee break one Thursday afternoon. Her thoughts were not so distracting that she couldn’t hear familiar voices bickering loudly in one of the break rooms.

As she entered the room she saw Grif leaning against one of the counters looking amused while Simmons switched between standing over him and pacing. “I can’t believe this! You said last time you wouldn’t do this again!”

“What? You were the one who promised her ‘anytime you’re in town’,” Grif frowned.

“I wasn’t being serious!” Simmons squawked.

“Hey Kim,” Grif said in the middle of their argument. Somehow, without looking, he had sensed she was there.

“Yeah, hi Dr. Kimball,” Simmons said releasing a breath and seemingly relaxing a little from the fight but remaining visibly annoyed.

“You two bicker like an old married couple,” she said teasingly.

“You didn’t tell her!” Simmons was back to a squawk, “We’ve known her for almost three months!”

“I thought I mentioned it, no wait, I thought you told her!” Grif accused, changing his mind mid sentence.

“What?” Kimball asked.

“We are an old married couple,” Simmons said emphatically.

“Oh!” Kimball said in surprise but honestly, if she thought about it, she probably could’ve guessed.

“Married a year and a half years isn’t old,” Grif said and took this chance to sit at the break room table. Simmons took the seat next to him, still somewhat angry, but he draped his arms over Grif and leaned into his shoulder. Kimball took the seat across from them after grabbing some of the coffee she saved from the morning. “It would’ve been four years if we executed our plan when I wanted to,” Grif said putting an arm around his husband.

“Your plan?” Kimball asked.

“Grif didn’t want a huge ceremony, so he suggested going to Vegas and getting married immediately,” Simmons said, “But we were still finishing up school, and-”

“But he wanted to have everything perfect. It was stressing you out,” Grif said plainly looking down at Simmons.

“I guess,” Simmons rolled his eyes, “So we eventually compromised.”

“We had a shotgun wedding,” Grif said, “because Sarge married us and had an actual shotgun on him.” From what she knew about the man, that sounded right.

“We got all of our friends together and got married in Tucker’s driveway,” Simmons said and began to fiddle with his ring, “Sometimes faster is better.”

“It turned out to be a good idea, to acknowledge all the fucking feelings and junk and get it over with,” Grif was looking directly at Kimball as he said this.

“You would say that,” Simmons said shaking his head, apparently not noticing Grif’s pointed look, “You’re so lazy, even with love!”

“Eh,” Grif shrugged.

“And don’t think reminiscing about our wedding day is getting you out of this!” Simmons apparently suddenly remembered their argument.

“Fuck.” Grif cursed apparently banking on that.

“And now we have a neutral third party,” Simmons turned to Kimball, “Grif’s sister is visiting and wants to stay in our guest room.”

“What’s wrong with that?” Kimball asked.

“Last time she stayed over she threw a party in our house while we were at work. All the walls in the house were inexplicably painted yellow and all alcohol we had was gone,” Simmons ranted, “it looked like a hurricane blew through the place!”

“Yeah I’m not thrilled to repaint again either but she’s my sister! She’s hitchhiking all the way from Hawaii for Tucker and Wash’s wedding. She needs a place to stay,” Grif argued.

“How is that even possible?” Simmons exclaimed.

“Well, the cost of repainting, replacing the alcohol, and cleaning supplies is probably a lot more than paying for a hotel room for a couple of nights,” Kimball said, “You’ll end up paying either way, might as well not go through the extra trouble.”

They considered it for a few moments, “That’s a good idea.” Simmons admitted.

“Even with the extra bills from the hotel when she destroys her room won’t be a huge deal compared to replacing the gutters again,” Grif said. Kimball decided she never wanted to know why they had to replace their gutters.

“This is why you’re the resistance leader,” Simmons nodded, “I don’t know what Wash did to make sure you got transferred here so he could have another perfect piece to his crazy D&D puzzle.”

“Actually Carolina invited me to the game,” she said trying and failing not to make her admiration for Carolina so obvious.

“I could’ve guessed” Grif said and winked slowly, so much so she almost didn’t realize what it was. She was surprised but nodded to confirm. He nodded slowly back.

“Oh good, you’re all in one place,” Carolina entered as if she had been summoned, she stood near Kimball and addressed them all, “I just spoke with Tucker. Junior is sick so Wash and him will be taking care of the kid tonight so D&D is cancelled.”

“I guess we’ll have to think of something else to do tonight,” Grif said again looking pointedly at Kimball.

“That’s a lie. We’ll go home and lay on the couch and watch House Hunters and you know it!” Simmons said crossing his arms not getting the hint.

“Yeah I’ll have to think of something too,” Kimball said.

“I’m going to see who else I can find before my break’s over,” Carolina said and headed out.

Kimball stood up pushing her chair back a little too dramatically. Grif gave her a thumbs up. “What’s that for?” Simmons asked as Kimball went chasing after Carolina.

“I’ll tell you later, or maybe I won’t,” Grif shrugged.

“You are infuriating!” She heard Simmons say as she caught up with Carolina.

“Hey Carolina,”Kimball tried to appear casual but it might have been useless at that point, “Since D&D is cancelled tonight, do you want to go get dinner?”

“Get dinner?” Carolina cocked her head. Her bright red hair looked vibrant in the LED lights of the hospital hallway and Kimball knew she was in too deep.

“Yeah there’s like a new Italian place by my apartment and uh, um, I usually eat what Tucker makes on Thursday, so uh I have no dinner plans,” she was rambling and tripping over words, but she realized this. Think of Carolina as a dragon slayer and ally, she told herself and continued confidently, “I was hoping you could join me for dinner tonight.” She looked Carolina in the eye for the first time in this conversation and held herself like a resistance leader.

“An Italian place? I also don’t have dinner plans,” Carolina seemed to be examining the evidence and reasons presented to her like a true scientist, like an experienced fighter sizing up a fight, “I would love to go get dinner with you tonight.”

“I’ll text you the rest of the details, see you tonight Carolina,” Kimball said and walked confidently off. When she got back to her office, her cool facade fell. She buried her head in her arms, her face burning with heat. She could not stop smiling.


	7. Dinner Date

Kimball sat at the table trying to play down her nervousness. She wondered if she was too dressed up. Her wavy black hair was down for once and she had worn a suit jacket, a nice light blue dress shirt, and some of her nicer slacks. In her mind, this was a date so she dressed for one. When Carolina came in, Kimball about died in her chair, but she stood for her arrival. Carolina wore a nice, but not too fancy, aqua dress. Her red hair was not only out of it’s usual tight bun, but curled. She was simply stunning as always. “Hello Carolina,” Kimball tried to retain the confidence she summoned earlier but it was becoming impossible.

“You’re looking sharp,” Carolina said a little stiffly, but the compliment was genuine.

“You, you look sharp too,” Kimball sat down as Carolina did, never taking her eyes of Carolina for too long. She couldn’t believe it. Carolina also considered it a date. The waitress came by and Kimball absentmindedly ordered a drink. When the waitress left she couldn’t stop the smile spreading on her face. “Thanks for joining me,” Kimball said as Carolina put her napkin on her lap.

Carolina was also smiling, which was a great sign, “It was no trouble. I’m happy to,” Carolina leaned in, “So, I know we shouldn’t talk too much about work but I’ve always wanted to know why you became a neurosurgeon. I never had the patience for it, and Church can’t aim for shit, but I’ve only heard good things about you.”

“Well,” Kimball started, “my parents always wanted to go to college but they couldn’t because they had just come to the United States and were trying to make ends meet. They told me, however, that I could be anything I wanted to be. They told me the hardest thing they could think of was neurosurgery and that I could even do that if I wanted to. It got me interested and turned out I enjoyed learning about the brain. And one thing led to another and I found myself entering medical school. I can’t imagine being anything else.”

Carolina listened intently, “The brain is the most interesting thing. It weighs less than your skin but it makes you feel. Well, I don’t need to tell you this, I’m sure you know that and feel the same.”

“I do,” Kimball said excitedly, “the brain is so fascinating and confusing.”

“And fragile,” Carolina said, her expression falling only a little.

“Yes. And fragile,” Kimball agreed, “so, I told you my reasons. Why are you a neurologist?” Carolina scrunched up her face. “Sorry, if it’s too personal,” Kimball said putting her hand out reassuringly, “You don’t have to answer.”

“No, no it’s fine,” Carolina shook her head and looked back up at Kimball, “Everyone else knows, and I consider you a close friend as well.”

“I consider you a close friend too,” Kimball said breaking into an encouraging smile.

“Thank you. But I had wanted to go into the marines. And I could have, but my father wouldn’t let me,” she said tersely, “My mother was a marine and she died during a mission.”

“I’m so sorry,” Kimball said.

Carolina shook her head, “I didn’t really know her and Church was still a baby, but it hurt my father deeply,” she said, “He was the neurologist. He wasn’t ever the same after she died. He became, what’s a good word? Ah, an asshole.”

“An asshole,” Kimball repeated, imagined Church, and understood.

“If I didn’t enter the field of neurology he threatened to cut his support from me,” she explained, “I would have been fine with that, but he was also going to stop paying for Church’s tuition too.”

“That’s awful,” Kimball said disgusted.

“So I went into neurology, not what I wanted, but it turned out I liked it well enough,” Carolina shrugged, “And my father is completely out of the picture now thanks to the Reds and Blues.”

“Reds and Blues?” Kimball asked.

“Oh! You transferred here after that whole debacle,” Carolina snorted at the memory, Kimball felt graced by her adorable laugh, “Sarge and Church got into an argument about what color we should repaint the hallways with. Sarge said red, Simmons was a suck up and followed, where Simmons goes so does Grif, and Donut thought a lightish red would liven up the place. Church was vehemently against it, Tucker is his best friend, and Caboose is enamored with my brother so they all sided with him. When Wash showed up he was dragged by Tucker onto the blue team.”

“What about you?” Kimball asked.

Carolina smiled a somewhat wicked smile, “Oh I look great in aqua, but the Red Team’s where it’s at.”

Kimball smiled along with her, “They chased off your father?”

“Yeah, he was a consultant during the big outbreak,” she spoke a little bitterly but didn’t seemed to be weighed down by the memory, “They told him off and Church and I finally cut ties.”

“And now the walls are both colors. I guess they compromised?” Kimball asked.

“That’s one way of putting it,” Carolina smiled, “How about your old hospital, hopefully nothing too crazy?”

“Nothing crazy happened there at all,” Kimball said, “In fact it was quite boring. The most excitement I got was debating with the other neurosurgeon on staff about Shakespeare. Somehow I knew more than him, and he was from England. That, and I played D&D.”

“You are an amazing player,” Carolina said, “You really get the character and role play her believably.”

“Thanks, but you guys are just as good, it took me years of playing to get the hang of it. I started playing with my cousins when I was little, it’s how I learned addition. I wanted to be a powerful wizard and blast all the bad guys away, I think my cousins let me bend the rules a little back then,” Kimball remembered those days in the basement of her aunt’s house, the coolest place in the summer; her small hands throwing the dice and sometimes getting them all to stay on the folding table. She remembered her older cousins helping her add up the total damage. She thought of Junior and her new friends sitting around Wash and Tucker’s new-antique dining room table Sarge gave them so “they could do it right”, “You guys are great and you’ve only been doing it for a little over a year,” Kimball said.

“It has been a year huh?” Carolina became introspective as the waitress came around with their drinks and left with their orders.

“How did this D&D game start anyway? I heard Sarge was the DM before, but now it’s Wash,” Kimball asked stirring her iced tea.

“Well that outbreak was, it was the worst. It was stressful as fuck,” Carolina said, her face had the same haunted look as when she left that meeting months ago, “We were barely keeping each other together. Sarge was the one who suggested it, one night while we were burning out at the end of a shift that had lasted for what felt like days. We all had Thursday free somehow, like it was meant to be, and we just started playing,” she smiled a little weakly, “At the beginning it was silly. Grif wouldn’t heal people even though he’s the only one with healing magic, Tucker seduced, or at least tried to, every NPC, and Caboose got Church killed a couple of times. It was something to keep our minds off the outbreak. Once that cleared up, the stories got more and more serious and Sarge announced his retirement. Wash had been a careful observer of the game for awhile at that point and he took over. Sarge apparently gave him all of his “military secrets” and the campaign got more in depth until here were are. We defeated a dragon and now we’re helping a rebellion. Right Kimball? Kimball?”

Kimball didn’t process her name for a few seconds, “Oh yeah, that’s right.” It had never occurred to her before that the outbreak would have had such a toll on Carolina. She was just so amazing. She was one of the knights of shining medical armor that every conference she’d been to in the past year talked about. But the way she talked about how exhausting it was, felt so vulnerable. Kimball looked at Carolina again, her bright green eyes looking a little concerned at Kimball seemingly spacing out. Carolina and all of her friends, their friends, weren’t on some pedestal she couldn’t reach. They were human, Carolina was human. Kimball was human.

“Are you okay?” Carolina asked.

“Sorry, I was just thinking,” Kimball came back to reality, she needed to stop looking at Carolina as someone she could never be as good as. That wasn’t fair to either of them. She had to stop seeing her as someone who could never fall for her.

“That’s fine, we keep talking about D&D,” Carolina said smiling at the ridiculousness.

“I was just thinking actually, about how D&D has changed my life,” Kimball said, “I mean, because of the game I got to know you.” She looked a little breathlessly at Carolina and Carolina stared starry-eyed back, “A-and all the others,” Kimball added in quickly realizing what she had said, her eyes darting to her hands. She looked back up at Carolina, a human, a half-elf fighter, “But I really am glad to have met you.” Carolina didn’t speak for a moment.

Then her face slowly turned a similar color to her hair, she put a hand over her mouth and seemed to be holding her breath. “Carolina?” Kimball asked.

“I, wow,” Carolina said, words falling from between her fingers and failing her in a way Kimball had never seen before. Carolina was human, and Kimball had been falling in love with her.

“Yeah?” Kimball asked, not sure how to feel about her reaction just yet.

“I haven’t dated in a long time,” Carolina looked up still blushing, hand still mostly covering her mouth.

“Yeah?”

“Not since college-”

“Same.”

“Do you really want to try it out?” Carolina’s hand slowly dropped from her face and she coughed awkwardly.

“Yes. Do you?” Kimball asked.

“Yes.” Carolina said trying to regain some of her composure but the blush remained.

“Then let’s do it, let’s date,” Kimball declared to the table like she was passing a law.

During the dinner Kimball ate up details about Carolina’s life while Carolina delighted in asking questions. They had spent so many lunches together, it was getting close to every day of the work week by then. But now they were dating; it was official because she said it out loud. They talked about things they already talked about but they felt like new subjects, more personally answered.

Kimball walked Carolina to her car at the end of the night after they split the check, “See you tomorrow. I’ll drop off some coffee,” Kimball said leaning into the car a little as Carolina got seated and buckled.

“With a kiss?” Carolina winked.

“May I?” Kimball asked, Carolina nodded. Kimball leaned into the car and kissed the top of Carolina’s head.

“Lovely,” Carolina said.

Kimball watched Carolina pull out of the restaurant's parking lot, waving as she passed. As she walked back to her apartment, she said to herself, evidence that Tucker was rubbing off on her, “Who knew D&D would help me pick up chicks?”


	8. Are You Ready For This?

She walked into the Hospital the next morning, ready for anything. She knocked lightly on Carolina’s office door, Carolina’s cappuccino in one hand her own in the other. Carolina opened the door for her and smiled as Kimball breezed past. Carolina tapped her shoulder as she passed by Kimball setting her coffee down as she headed back to her desk, “I’ll see you at lunch, and at three for the meeting?” Kimball asked looking at her watch.

“Correct,” Carolina said shuffling through some folders behind her desk, “Also I called Church and told him about our relationship last night, the others I have not yet told.”

“We can tell them on Thursday, better than trying to track them all down,” Kimball said, “How did your brother take it? He kinda hates me?”

Carolina turned around in her chair to face Kimball and frowned, “He doesn’t hate you. He has been really shitty toward you, I’m not excusing that, but the day you showed up his girlfriend was called away, she’s in the reserves. He worries. I blame our father for how he handles it. You took over the character she was going to play in the game.”

Kimball remembered her first day, Church hadn’t been hostile, just uninterested, that was until his girlfriend was called away.

“I talked with him, hopefully he stops being an asshole all the time,” Carolina paused, mouth open, then continued, “He’ll stop being an asshole specifically to you outside his general persona of being an asshole.” She thought about her revisions and nodded seemingly satisfied. Carolina’s cell phone began to ring, she fished it out of her pocket and looked puzzled at the caller ID, “Wash?” She answered the phone confused. Kimball was on her way out, but she paused in the doorway as she heard Carolina gasp. “It’s was his day off,” Carolina said worriedly into the phone, Kimball rushed back in, Carolina did not sound great, her hand was near her mouth like the night before, but now her brow was scrunched up and she looked like she was getting paler, “He was fine last night, I spoke with him on the phone,” her voice was steadily becoming louder and shriller, “Where is he now?” She said standing up, “I know that Wash.” Her voice was icy as she hung up the phone.

“Carolina?” Kimball asked.

“Church, he’s sick, come,” Carolina wasn’t attempting sentences, she barked the fragments like orders, and swiftly left the room. Kimball raced after her. Some of the people they passed looked surprised as Carolina raced past followed by Kimball. Most looked, if Kimball had to give it a name, a mix between pity and fear.

Kimball realized where Carolina was going after a while; towards the quarantine rooms. As they entered the wing, most of the rooms were empty, except for the one at the end. Wash and Tucker stood in front of the glass, uniforms askew. They looked sadly at Carolina as they heard her approach. She stopped short of the glass and looked in. Kimball soon caught up and looked in as well. Other doctors in hazmat suits were tending to Church. He turned his head a little to see them, grimaced, but gave his sister a thumbs up. Carolina was definitely crying, it was an angry cry, but it was rapidly losing it’s steam. She looked at Kimball then looked down at Kimball’s hand. Kimball offered it and Carolina grabbed it and squeezed it until Kimball thought her fingers might fall off. “They think it might be Sigma?” She asked between gritting her teeth and watching the glass intensely, still holding onto Kimball like she would float away otherwise.

Wash and Tucker looked at each other. Wash chose to be the one to speak up, “He called the hospital, we were sent out, hazmat suits. There’s a crew back at his house,” Wash began, “There will soon be a test of everything here, we don’t know yet though.”

“Symptoms.” Carolina said. It was not a question.

Wash winced. “His voice is cracking and they found a small patch of rough skin on his arm,” he said. Carolina did not take her eyes off of Church, the glass was a tinted blue glass. The image of Church blurred into the blue for Kimball as she watched Church intently too.

“It could be anything, the quarantine is just for safety,” Tucker spoke up, “just in case.”

“We’ll know in a week for sure,” Wash said, trying to sound comforting, but it didn’t really feel that comforting to Kimball.

“This can’t be happening,” Carolina said. Kimball rubbed her back as Carolina couldn’t stop her feelings anymore from breaking through. Kimball looked back at Wash and Tucker, they both looked equally heartbroken. They all stood there for what seemed like forever.

The next week, Thursday morning, the rest of the group was allowed to visit. They were still unsure if this was Sigma or not. Church hadn’t lost his voice yet, like was common in Sigma cases, but it sounded bad. The test results were going to be slow, the disease was stubborn and took a while to confirm. He was still in quarantine as they spoke. Kimball briefly wondered, in the confusion, if all of them knew they were dating now. They could have guessed from how Carolina had leaned into Kimball like Kimball was human armor that would protect Carolina from all of this. She didn’t think on it too long because she was too busy wondering if she could protect Carolina from this.

“Hey buddy,” Tucker spoke softly as he pressed the speaker button. Kimball wished she could feel surprised at how different everyone sounded.

“Hey man, fuck, right?” Church’s voice was beyond scratchy, syllables would be dropped into silence, like his voice was glitching out.

“Yeah,” Tucker nodded solemnly. Tucker took Wash’s hand and stepped back. They all looked around at each other.

They were some of the loudest people Kimball had ever met. They stood in silence. Until, Caboose pushed to the front of the group and pressed the speaker button, “Hey Church!” Although Caboose seemed incapable of getting quieter, he didn’t sound as peppy as he usually did, “You said you wouldn’t die again.”

“Yeah Caboose. I did say that,” Church said, “And I’m not going to.”

“Ok.” That seemed to satisfy Caboose.

“And you guys better play tonight,” Church coughed as the group all looked from one to the other uneasily.

“We’re not really feeling it Church,” Grif said into the mic.

“No,” he coughed, “You have to play.”

“I don’t think it’s that important that we play tonight,” Wash said.

“It,” cough, “is,” Church insisted.

Kimball was focused on staring at the walls, as the rest continued to argue in hushed tones with Church. She looked at the single blue stripe and the single red stripe over it. They weren’t knights in shining armor. They were people and they were beginning to fall apart. They all looked so tired. She felt so tired. It had been a terrible week. Everyone in their group had bags under their eyes. Carolina had stayed over at Kimball’s most nights when she had been forced to go home to rest. But they sat up, unable to sleep and talked and Kimball listened while Carolina cried. The others all seemed to be having the same problem. But they were the hospital staff that saved the day. And somehow, they had compromised on what paint color to use. How did they manage it? She thought of Sarge, “No, he’s right.” They all looked at where Kimball stood holding Carolina’s arm. Carolina looked puzzled up at her.

Wash shook his head, “It’s not really the time for that.”

“Listen to her,” Church said though coughs and continued dropping the occasional letter from his words, “for fuck’s sake.”

Kimball looked through the blurry glass at Church and she thought he was giving her the first smile he ever had for her, although it looked pretty smug even blurry as it was. “We should play D&D tonight,” Kimball said with conviction, “We all feel run down. We are all worried. We have to keep our minds off of the virus.”

“Yeah!” Church punctuated her words weakly.

“Church wants us to, and I think it is a great idea. We need to play. We need to set aside our troubles and trust each other in the game. If we don’t, I don’t know if we’ll be here tomorrow. So please, fight dragons with me. Fight because we deserve to be fucking happy,” Kimball continued. She didn’t notice at the time, but her voice didn’t waver as she spoke. Each word from her mouth was weaponized, they were heavy and stepped in time. They were winning.

“Ok,” Caboose was officially convinced.

“We definitely should!” Donut lit up, as if he’d realized something.

“I’ll make, uh, soup,” Tucker said slowly.

The rest of them slowly mumbled out affirmatives but turned to Wash, the DM had the final say. “Are you sure Kimball?” Wash asked.

“More than ever,” Kimball said and looked out at her broken troops as they crowded the hospital hallway, they needed the heroes they’ve heard tales about. They needed to look up to the people who slew a dragon. It would lift their spirits and this army wouldn’t fall apart. How did she know? Well. It had worked for her army before.


	9. Chorus' Last Stand

Tucker and Wash’s house smelled of mushrooms and tomatoes. Six pots worth of soup sat on the snack table. The chatter still happened, albeit subdued. Kimball had been afraid it would still be silent.

“I’m going to sit, for a bit,” Carolina had said and went to the dining room table to sit. Kimball let her have space.

Tucker was in the kitchen with Wash, they were chatting while Tucker made sure his rolls rose, his shoulders tense. Caboose was bothering Grif and Simmons who were arguing a lot less, talking a lot less. They seemed to look at each other as if they were having a silent conversation with their eyes. As if they had gained telepathy from being married to only use during emergencies. Or maybe they always had it.

Donut sat in one of the window seats, cooling off a tacky mug of his special tea he got shipped in from some health company in Austria. She noticed suddenly he was the only one who was smiling, aside from Caboose who never really stopped. “Hello Doctor Kimball!” He said pleasantly and scooted to the side as she approached. She took her seat next to him,

“Hello Donut,” She sighed and tried to keep a similarly optimistic smile, “Donut, I’ve known you for almost three months, you don’t have to call me doctor outside of the hospital.”

“Sorry for being so formal Dr. Kimball,” Donut said as if he didn’t really hear her.

“Nevermind,” she said looking down at the steaming pink drink he had. “Dr. Kimball?” he said after a small moment of silence between them.

“Yes?” she asked.

“You remind me of Sarge,” he said.

“I do?” she asked, she didn’t see what he was getting at.

“Well,” Donut drew out the sound, “not perfectly. You aren’t southern, yelling all the time, and you haven’t tried to kill Grif in D&D, yet. But you were right, we need to play today,” he explained as he stirred his tea, “When Sigma was spreading through the hospital, jumping from patient to patient, everyone was freaking out. Everyone, and I mean everyone, in all of the departments. I was trying to get mothers scheduled to different hospitals for their upcoming births, scared to death for the little premature babies we were still taking care of. I was a mess!” he exhaled a small snort of amusement looking back, “And Sarge, he gave us this big speech and convinced us to play D&D. After we played, everyone had higher spirits! I don’t think Church had slept at all before we played! After the first game, we pulled ourselves together and we decided “we can do it!”, and we did,” he said happily, “Sometimes a problem is too tight to get through, all you need is something to help you along, right?”

He looked up at her, innocently and intently. She cocked her head, wondering if he listened to what he said. Her smile was still a thin line but it felt more genuine now, “You’re exactly right Donut.”

Donut nodded to her and let her lean into him, laying her head on his shoulder, smelling in the sickly strong rose smell as it wafted up from the tea full force. “Donut, why are we here?” she wondered aloud, “How did you all meet?”

“Well,” he hummed a single note as he thought, “Some of us already knew some of the others, but when we all came together? The hospital wanted to paint the walls, so they created a committee of a bunch of people from different departments to make the decision. It was like it was meant to be.”

They gathered around the table, books open, dice organized, and bowls of soup scattered around the table, warm rolls on the way. And they played D&D.

“So as you all discuss this, Kimball what’s your passive perception?” Wash asked off the cuff.

“That can’t be good,” Caboose whispered so loudly he didn’t.

“16.” she answered.

“Okay Kimball you see something shift in the shadow, you see a hint of orange moving just out of sight,” Wash said with a smile that was just evil.

“Do I recognize this particular shade of orange?” she said knowing exactly what was going on.

“It’s exactly what you think,” he nodded, the evil smile only got more devious. In these moments, she could imagine what Sarge would’ve looked like as he DM’d.

“Traitor, I say and launch a magic missile attack,” Kimball said as her hand dived and grabbed her D4’s without looking.

“Go ahead and roll damage and I want everyone to roll initiative,” Wash said and began to pull out minifigures and a map.

“The traitor?” Carolina asked in a free action as they all rolled initiative.

“I have a two for initiative,” Grif reported in the middle.

“Please add more points into dex next level up so your initiative isn’t always shit please!” His husband exclaimed looking at Grif’s dice to confirm, yes, he really had rolled that low.

“It’s Felix,” Kimball said in a low almost growl.

They began to fight the traitor and the soldiers he had with him. She watched as they all began to describe their actions. She’d watched them fight before but she watched them closer this time. “I’m going to use my cool light sword, that’s definitely not a lightsaber, and attack the guy to my left,” Tucker explained, “Can I have advantage on my roll?”

“Why?” Wash asked.

“You said some ancient symbols around here match my sword, so isn’t it possible they power up my sword so I can make this badass attack? Then I’ll inspire, if I’m being honest, everyone with a wink. But the inspiration dice goes to Kimball.” They fought together in this imaginary almost surprise attack with a togetherness that she didn’t often see within large groups like this.

“I can’t make it in range with my walking speed!” Simmons lamented.

“Hold your action babe,” Grif said, suddenly rising from his hunched back position into one of excitement, “I’m next.”

“Okay, I’ll hold my action until Grif does his thing,” Simmons said trusting him completely.

“Grif.” Wash motioned for him to explain his great idea.

“Get ready for the Grif Shot. I want to pick him up and throw him at the bad guy like he’s a ball of nerd and magic,” Grif said with the most energy she’d ever seen from the man.

“You’ll definitely have to roll a strength check,” Wash waited as he rolled and then looked at the look on Grif’s face and rubbed his temples, “I can’t believe it.”

“A natural 20? Suck it assassins!” Simmons said and began describing his midair spell attack. If it weren’t for the bags under their eyes, she would never of been able to tell how stressed these people had been. Their worries had seemingly melted away.

“I want to throw someone too!” Caboose cried.

“You can toss me off later,” Donut said seriously, “Right now we’ve got to beat off every other guy in this room! I’m definitely enhancing your ability so you can knock that guy who hit my face with that spell!”

“Yay!” Caboose said.

“Do you need healing?” Grif asked.

“No I’m good!” Donut chirped.

“I can’t believe you are still alive,” Wash said.

“Who me?” Caboose asked.

“Any of you,” Wash said exacerbated.

Church was right. They needed to do this. “Kimball?” Carolina turned to her, a twenty-sided dice rolling between her fingers, “Let’s finish this.”

And while Kimball was astounded by all her friends’ skills, she was a great player too. She let herself admit that. “My pleasure,” Kimball said with a fire she had not earned, but had finally embraced as something she already had.

They defeated all the assassins that night. Felix got away using dimension door, of course, he always seemed slippery, but not before revealing he was working for the infamous Litch Hargrove. “A Litch?” Simmons had cried, the only person besides Wash and Kimball who knew what that was.

“And that’s where we’ll call it for the week,” Wash said, evil smile making a comeback.

She left with Carolina, satisfied with the night, one of the best despite the immense weight that waited for them outside the game. She was confident they could handle it. “That was good.” Wash said as they headed out the door, “It was very good.”

Kimball was also confident that everyone got sleep that night. She could never be completely sure, but she had heard Carolina’s breaths slow as she fell asleep beside her. She was confident in that.


	10. Breathe

It was the next day. Church’s results would be in later that afternoon. D&D had lifted everyone’s spirits, but she knew these results could crush them again. Carolina was sitting alone in a row of empty scratchy visitor seats. Kimball had to leave her to do work. She kissed the top of her head again and headed off. She was gathering samples of equipment that Church used in the neurology department that was currently closed off. She went through the necessary sanitization process. She had disposed of her hazmat suit and scrubbed her arms until they were almost raw from the boiling water and nondescript soap. The work day had passed in a blur and she hadn’t fully come back to the present as she headed down the halls back to where she knew Carolina was. She probably hadn’t moved all day.

She happened to look into one of the open rooms she passed and saw Caboose picking up multicolored plastic blocks off the carpeted floor. She wasn’t sure why, but she walked over and stood in the doorway of the room. It was decorated with zoo animals and cartoony trees. It was also filled with toys that Caboose was cleaning up. “Kimball!” Caboose said in surprise when he finally looked up, his arms so full of toys he dropped a few.

“Hi Caboose, sorry for,” she trailed off, not really sure what she was sorry about, she just felt like she needed to apologize.

“Are you here to help?” he asked.

“Uh, if you need help,” She said.

“Great!” He said so excited that he dropped all the toys in his arms, “Uh oh.”

“Don’t worry I’m here to help,” She said and moved into the room and crouched down to pick up a few of the blocks Caboose dropped and a cool plastic tank. They picked up the toys for a few minutes in pleasant silence. Kimball occasionally looked over at Caboose who was cheerfully putting the toys in their correct spaces. “Are you done babysitting for the day?” she asked, finally being the one to talk.

“Yup,” he said then continued in his usual not-really-whisper even though the kids were in a completely different room, “They’re sleeping.”

“Oh, that’s good.” She said and stood up staring at the rubber ball in her hand.

Caboose put the last of the toys he was carrying away and then stood over Kimball. He was so much taller than her that he cast a shadow. She looked up at his smiling face as he asked, “Are you feeling okay Kimball? Cos you don’t sound like super okay.”

“I’m just a little worried still,” Kimball said.

“Worried!” He popped up into the air, almost hitting his head on the ceiling, “Why didn’t you say so!” Caboose put his hand out.

“Uh?” She took his hand despite not knowing why, she decided she trusted him. He quickly sat down on the ground, criss-cross applesauce. She slowly, while still holding his hand, sat on the primary colored carpet and mimicked how he sat. They sat across each other for a second He nodded his head at her and closed his eyes. She stared at him for bit. He opened one of his eyes and then overemphasized the closing of his eyes. She got the hint and closed her own too. She heard him take a deep breath. She followed along. They sat for a few minutes, eyes closed. Holding each other’s hand. She eventually picked up on the rhythm of deep breaths. Holding them in for a few seconds then slowly letting them free.

“Better?” He shook her hand a little too much as she opened her eyes.

“Actually, yes,” She said as he helped her stand back up.

“If anyone is ever worried they can come talk to me and we can sit on the carpet and breathe,” Caboose explained.

“You must be the best babysitter,” She said.

“Aw Kimball!” Caboose said at the compliment, “The kids can get very worried because being at the hospital is scary. I think,” he pondered for a moment and tried to decided what he thought, “I think Carolina is scared too. I think she needs to sit on the carpet and breathe.”

“Maybe she does,” Kimball agreed.

“Thank you so much for helping me clean Kimball!” Caboose said and put his arms out. She accepted the hug, the bone crushing hug. She smiled and exhaled a little incredulously, and a little in pain,

“No Caboose, thank you.”

“I don’t know why we both can’t thank,” Caboose said in an accusatory tone as he released his arms form the hug.

“I’ve got to go,” Kimball said, “I’ll see you later Caboose!”

“Bye Kimball!” He shouted back as she waved goodbye once more and went speeding down the halls. Well, she didn’t run, but she hurried as far as her comfortable boring doctor shoes could take her. Carolina was still sitting in the waiting room chairs. Her head was propped up by one her hands as her elbow sank into the itchy fabric of the chair that had been there since the nineties. She wasn’t sleeping. Her eyes were open and she was still on high alert. She jumped like she had heard a loud bang instead of just her girlfriend’s quick footsteps. Kimball plopped down in the seat next to her where she had sat hours earlier. Carolina looked at her and let her tense shoulders droop.

“Hey Carolina,” Kimball said quietly, even though the only other people there were someone snoring on the other side of the room and Doc the receptionist, who was not a doctor, who was too preoccupied with paperwork to pay attention to them.

“Hi Kimball,” she said lazily, or un-Carolina like, “Sorry, this has to be the worst first week of a new relationship ever. Of all time. Happy week anniversary to us.” Carolina joked without joy.

“Carolina take my hand and close your eyes,” Kimball wasn’t sure if explaining it would ruin the magic but she wasn’t trained in this like Caboose was.

“Okay,” Carolina complied.

“Okay now I want you to breath in,” she had only one eye closed and watched Carolina take one with her other eye, “Now let it go. Slowly.” Kimball maybe narrated the breaths for a little too long but she hoped the gist of it was working. They sat in the LED lighted waiting room that smelled of broth and rubbing alcohol for nearly an hour, breathing in and out. Next Thursday Kimball had to bake something, or more realistically, get Tucker to bake something for Caboose because she definitely owed him.

Carolina hummed a small almost inaudible note to get Kimball to open her eyes. They looked into each other’s eyes, separated only by the armrests of the chairs.

“Dr. Carolina, Dr. Kimball,” A tall lady in spectacles who spoke in an almost unnaturally even voice entered the room.

“Phyllis,” Carolina and Kimball still held hands, they hadn’t let go that whole hour, “You can tell us.”

Phyllis took off her glasses and chuckled, “It’s laryngitis and a small outbreak of eczema on his arms, probably because your, I mean Leonard had history of it.”

Carolina looked to Kimball as they sprung out of their chairs, tears pricking at her eyes. Kimball was having trouble keeping tears from falling. “Kimball,” Carolina announced, “I want to kiss you.”

“Let’s do it then!” Kimball said and they kissed. They pressed their lips together and as far as first kisses as a couple goes, it was a little gross. Kimball’s hands got a little slimy damp from Carolina’s tears of joy when Kimball went to touch her face as they kissed. A little snot from their cry got smeared and maybe onto the other person a little. It was a kind of gross but it was also a little beautiful. Kimball knew her girlfriend was just so happy at this moment, and she was so happy too. They had their first kiss in one of the hospital’s visitor waiting rooms with a guy chainsaw snoring in the background and as a tall polite lady continued to get the necessary files ready to get Church out of quarantine and into a normal room because he still had Laryngitis. Kimball thought later, this was the perfect place for their first kiss.


	11. Epilogue: How Do You Want To Do This?

“Hey Kimball,” Church’s voice was still a little scratchy but it wasn’t intelligible anymore, “My sister just stepped out to get coffee. But she’ll be back, she hasn’t left me alone all day, it like I’m fucking attached to her.”

“She’s just glad to have you back,” Kimball said and leaned into the edge of his hospital bed.

“I know,” Church said stubbornly. He looked over at her, in a way that seemed like he was trying not to be caught looking at her, “Kimball, don’t hurt her or else.”

“Or else? Are you giving me a talk right now?” Kimball tried not to laugh.

“I’d be more threatening if I wasn’t in a fucking hospital bed, but yes I am giving you a talk,” Church grumbled, “and I’m serious as dicks.”

“I will not hurt her,” Kimball promised.

Church nodded, “I know you won’t,” a pause, “But just if you do, watch out.”

“Church are you harassing people?” Kimball looked over, a woman stood in the doorway. She was incredibly attractive. She was tall and muscular, her toned arms on display in her sleeveless black shirt. She was also very blonde.

“Tex?” Church’s voice squeaked as he sprang to life.

“I leave for three months and you go and almost die,” Tex moved to his bedside and pulled him into an embrace, “Don’t do that.”

“How do you know it’s not a ploy to get you to stay in town for longer than a week?” Church sounded angry but he didn’t look angry at all, he looked massively relieved.

“Still, don’t do that you cockbite, the marines will catch on,” she said with a strange humor in her voice. She kinda reminded Kimball of Carolina, just a little. “Hey I’m Tex, you must be Kimball?” Tex still kept an arm around Church but extended a hand for a quick firm handshake, “Wash texted me about you, said you played good in that nerdy dice game.” Something about her also surprisingly reminded her of Grif.

“She’s Carolina’s girfriend,” Church added in.

Tex’s eyes narrowed for just a moment, “Carolina’s fucking great.”

“I agree,” Kimball said earnestly.

“We haven’t always,” she paused, “agreed. But if you hurt her, watch out,” Tex said. And now Kimball could see how Tex and Church had fallen in love.

“I won’t,” Kimball said again.

“Good,” Tex ran one of her hands through Church’s messy black hair that had to be greasy from being in the hospital for so long.

“Oh, Texas is here,” Carolina entered and looked at Tex with an automatic look of suspicion but apparently quickly cleared whatever had popped to her mind away. There was a history here Kimball would have to ask Carolina about someday, “I brought coffee.”

“And your best friends,” Tucker slid into the room, Tex seemed unphased by his antics.

“What?” Church demanded.

Wash entered in holding a stack of books and his DM screen. Tucker continued, “It’s Thursday asshole.”

“Let’s get this game going before we get kicked out,” Simmons said as he and Grif entered too, “I’m sure we’re breaking fire code.”

“Whatever let’s smoke this Litch,” Grif yawned, “We’re playing during prime naptime.”

“It’s not Thursday,” Church said more personally offended then he needed to.

“Well, you missed last session-” Wash explained.

“I was dying,” Church butted in dramatically.

“-so you’re making it up now,” Wash finished as if he hadn’t heard him.

“How are we going to roll dice on a hospital bed?” Church asked.

“I brought Monopoly!” Caboose skipped with the game board held above his head. He put the game board on Church’s lap and then dumped his dice on it, “I brought the fake money too, just in case.”

“Any more objections?” Wash asked as Donut entered.

“The delivery was a success,” Donut said, he was the only one still in his uniform.

“Cutting it kinda close eh Donut?” Kimball said.

“Nothing could keep me away from wrestling that dick,” everyone gave him a look. That was the most obvious one yet, and Kimball realized she would never know for sure whether he was doing it on purpose or if he really didn’t know, “Y’know, the Litch, Hargrove? He’s a dick. Right guys?”

Kimball was the happiest she had ever been. She felt good about herself. And she had the most interesting best friends in the world. Not to mention one of those friends was her wonderful girlfriend. She couldn’t be sure, but she had a feeling things would be alright. There would be more tragedy, more scares, she would get down on herself again. But she knew her friends, her troops, would be there through all of it.

Someday soon Wash and Tucker would get married. But before that they would fight over which side Kimball would stand at, as they both asked her to be one of their groom’s people at the same time.

(“Dangonit, y’all’ve been arguing about which side she’s standing at like a bunch of hogs over a cock’s teeth! When the real question is, are you a Red or are you a Blue?” Sarge would stop the argument cold one Thursday night at Tucker’s when he visited to check up on them before the wedding.

Kimball would smile the same kind of evil smile that Wash was known for as he DM’d, “Wouldn’t you like to know.” The whole house will groan and it would be a topic of hot debate for years to come.)

She had finally found her place. She sat with the others around Church’s hospital bed, her player’s handbook cracked open in her lap as they prepared for the boss fight. “I’m not even that sick anymore, I can roll my own dice!” Church complained crossing his arms.

Tex held his dice hostage, “No way, I’ll roll for you tonight, maybe you’ll have good luck for once.”

Wash gave her a side-look, “You two are the most unlucky people I’ve ever met, who knows what your powers combined would do to.”

“Yeah don’t fuck up my hard work,” Grif had finally leveled up enough to revive Church for this final fight, no mysterious cleric required.

“Don’t die Church!” Caboose said strangling him in a side hug.

“I won’t! I won’t!” he said trying to shove Caboose away.

“I bet you thirty bucks he dies thirty seconds into his lair,” Simmons elbowed Grif.

“I want in on that!” Tucker said digging around for his wallet.

“Fuck you guys!” Church said finally free from Caboose’s grasp.

“Really?” Donut asked sweetly, “Because I want in on that bet!”

“FUCK ALL OF YOU,” Church bellowed, “Last time I died was the last time I try to sacrifice myself dramatically to save all of your asses. No matter what this shitty Litch Hargrove does,” Church threatened with finality.

“Enough arguing, how do you guys want to do this?” Wash ended the argument in his official DM voice.

They all turned to look at Carolina and Kimball, their leaders. “Shall we General?” Carolina looked over at Kimball, smiling a sly but warm smile.

Kimball took Carolina’s free hand and entwined their fingers, “Let’s show this douche what we can do,” she said and rolled a dice as they both leaned in for a kiss.

**The End**

**Author's Note:**

> D&D feels like it has to be played on Thursdays.  
> I'd like to thank everyone over at the RVB Big Bang and my lovely artist!  
> Reminder that http://coffeeastronaut.tumblr.com/ did the art. Thank you so so so so much!!!!


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